


A Christmas Carolstuck

by Broba



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dickensian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-22
Updated: 2012-02-22
Packaged: 2017-10-31 14:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/345168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broba/pseuds/Broba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So there I was- Christmas 2011. One of the roughest Christmases I have personally had to endure. I was lonely, miserable and cold. Desperate for some kind of human contact I started browsing the kinkmeme, and what should come up, but an honest to goodness request for a christmas tale to warm the cockles.</p>
<p>I felt a shiver go down my back, as I realised what I had to do. I sat down to write, and did the whole thing in one day, more then I'd ever written in one sitting at that time. In the end, I got my Christmas MiRaClE.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The snow lay thick and downy under the crunching boots of children as they gambolled and played in the streets of the old town, their piping voices filled the airs with excited shrieks and screams, all amid the ever present thud of snowballs and the cries of hawkers selling hot chestnuts in greasepaper bags and down by the market steaming mugs of gluhwein from under wooden clapboard canopies. The light had a glowing golden property because everywhere there were candles and bright braziers to fill the snowbound streets with their warm radiance.  
  
Policemen patrolled the cobblestone streets and tipped their hats to fine ladies about town, chimney-sweeps and boilermakers swapped stories and greeted each other with a merry how-do-you-do and all was business and preparation. The festivals drew closer, for Christmas Eve and of course Christmas Day itself when the children would find their stockings fat with toys and tables would groan with suckling pig and turkey.  
  
Truly there could be no home that year untouched by the warmth and merriment, no doorway unadorned with holly and mistletoe, no fire left unlit- all with one exception. Because as ever, the cold offices of one Eridaneezer Scrooge would be open for business like any other day, and as ever the dripping walls would be meagrely warmed only by the thinnest most insubstantial flame of a single coal in the scuttle. The man himself came swiftly to the office as was his habit, a lone rake shape, hoop-shouldered and scuttling through the snow with no hallo for the parson or so much as a nod to the beadle. Scrooge saw fit to head to work in his customary manner for it was a customary day of business at the end of that year, and there was no reason at all to see it as otherwise despite the fickle fancy that had apparently overtaken every other living soul. If Scrooge alone should be a voice of sanity and reason in a time of pointless frivolity then that role suited him well.  
  
He huffed and grunted his way along Old Grayling street and past the cannery works, wheezed and cluttered along the Broad Way and past Park Avenue. Tempting though it may have been no child in play raised a snowball to Eridaneezer Scrooge, for only more legendary then his bitterness was his wrathful attitude towards children.  
  
Along the street he came until he reached the rickety sign above his moneylenders' shop, which in times past had read in bold script SCROOGE & MAKARLEY though now the latter name had been expunged by means of a crude black line under which was added the legend (DECEASED). He removed his top hat and frock-coat, hung his cane on the lip of the umbrella stand as was his habit and settled down to work. His attendant clerk was late, and he checked the minutes on his fob-watch, marking a tally to deduct from the man's salary as he settled into working on the day's bookkeeping.  
  
Bob Karkatchit practically fled into the office as though the very dogs of hell's teeth were upon him, but one look upon the countenance of his employer told him that it was too late for an apology or excuse, and so he sat himself down without a word and took up his quill pen to work. Scrooge, every the expert in twisting every drop of profit out of each moment, waited patiently for fully sixty seconds before he set down his own pen, marking his place with a fingertip, and glared over the top of his glasses at the poor clerk.  
  
"I see that my watch must be losing time, for you are fully twelve minutes late by its' count Mister Karkatchit."  
"Your watch is not wrong sir, I do not try to excuse my lateness."  
"Indeed you should not, for there is no excuse! Where would this empire be if we all lost twelve minutes _per diem_ of useful activity? What incalculable waste it should be!"  
"I quite agree Mister Scrooge, it's just-" he wound his fingers together and tried to find some spark of contrition in his soul toward his merciless employer, "-I had to accompany young Tiny Tav to the church, he is singing a place in the choir on behalf of the poor and bereft this Christmas Eve and it do bring them such comfort Mister Scrooge."  
"The poor! The bereft! Bereft of what, I might ask? Poor for want of what? Why, have we no workhouses to provide shelter and employment? Might any man not find himself something more productive on which to spend his time then sitting idly in a church to which, I might add, he has contributed naught toward the upkeep!"  
"I wouldn't say that church is a waste, Mister Scrooge, and not especially around Christmas."  
"Christmas?" Asked Scrooge rhetorically, "Humbug!"  
  
He would hear no more entreaties that day, and Karkatchit knew it, he knew better then to say a word and kept his head bent down over his books, trying hard not to shiver. The look Scrooge shot him just dared him to try and ask for another coal to be lit. There was, of course, no business to come in that day of all days, on Christmas Eve, but Scrooge would hear nothing of closing early while there was a scrap of daylight to be productively used. Therefore it came as a surprised when the door was knocked upon most vigorously. Scrooge himself got up to investigate and opened the door cautiously against the cold, miserly of what little heat remained therein.  
  
Even as Scrooge pulled upon the door it was beaten open with a mighty fist, and there in the doorway stood Scrooge's nephew, beaming massively.  
  
"Uncle!" He roared, "A Merry Christmas to you! The STRONGEST good wishes to you!"  
"Fredquius!" Retorted Scrooge, "you might well have taken my door of the hinges, and where then would this empire be if we did not have sturdy doors upon the facings of our-"  
"COME uncle! Embrace me and share in the season's bounty! My good wife is preparing a dinner at my home, and we always have a place for our honoured uncle!"  
Scrooge glared at him, and Fredquius visibly wilted. He had been building himself up to the little speech for some time, and it had achieved precisely nothing.  
"Uncle, will you at least wish me a merry Christmas?"  
"Christmas?" Eridaneezer pondered it for a moment, "humbug!"  
And with that he slammed shut the door, though Fredquius still shouted through the letter-slot, "Always a place uncle, and I will be back here next year and every year thereafter until you avail yourself of it!"  
  
Eridaneezer picked up his cane and thrust it neatly through the letter-slot eliciting a sharp yell from his nephew. He smiled grimly for the first time in that day and strode back to his desk. There he sat and worked, counting out interest payments and dutifully double-entering each amount until he had a balanced tally at the end of the day, and only then did he close his book and, with a final glance at his fob-watch announce that they were closed. Karkatchit near flew from his desk until Scrooge coughed meaningfully, arresting the poor clerk instantly.  
  
"Perhaps it is worth reminding you, Mister Karkatchit, that we open at nine o'clock in the morning- precisely. I shall expect you to-morrow."  
"To-morrow! But Mister Scrooge, it is Christmas!"  
"Indeed so, and it is no fault of mine that Christmas should fall on a weekday! Nine o'clock, Mister Karkatchit."  
"I see Mister Scrooge, nine o'clock." He hesitated, "Mister Scrooge?"  
"Yes?"  
"Merry Christmas to you, all the same."  
"Humbug!"  
  
-  
  
That night, Scrooge ascended the stair to his room after a dinner of thin soup with croutons and potato, he lit his way with only a taper for there seemed little point in a candle for only one person. He shuffled to his room and dressed for bed in silence, putting on his gown and cap, and setting his eyeglasses neatly beside his bed. A moment before he was about to extinguish the taper he was brought short by a sound, a soft and almost insubstantial sound that he could not be truly sure he had heard. Shaking his head he bent to the scuttle to toss away the taper when it came again- a gentle clinking as of an iron chain.  
  
Scrooge stood upright and looked around the room slowly. He knew every inch of his home and took pride in being aware of everything in it, and in all of his life of routine an discipline there was never any reason for there to be such as sound at this time of night. He suppressed a shiver and took a moment to compose himself for surely there was nothing to fear from such a tiny sound.  
  
Scrooge whisked the taper through the air to extinguish the tiny flame and was blanketed in blue twilight, when suddenly the room was bathed in a greenish sepulchral light, the source of which was an indistinct glow from beneath the fastened door. Scrooge collapsed to his arm-chair in shock and held his hands up before him.  
  
"Who's there? Answer me!"  
"Scrooge!"  
  
The voice as both near and far, echoing and dull, it was everywhere around him. Worse, it was familiar to him.  
  
"Who is there I said, who?"  
"You know me, Eridaneezer."  
"I do not!"  
"You know me, and you shall name me! Say my name, Eridaneezer Scrooge!"  
"I will not!"  
"Name me!"  
"Begone and ask me not to name you!"  
"Name me, Scrooge!"  
"Makarley! Gamzee Makarley!"  
  
He moaned the name of his dead partner in business, for it was he who floated directly through the closed door. A ghostly form less substantial then mist, but bearing of a light that let Scrooge see the finest detail clearly. His dead partner hung in midair, buffeted as though by winds unfelt by mortal flesh, his ragged clothing trailing away from his body and his limbs bound about with chains.  
  
"It is I, Scrooge, your partner!"  
"Makarley! Why are you here, why come to me this way?"  
"Look at me, Scrooge! Look what has become of poor Makarley!"  
"Why do you bid me look when I cannot for fear, I cannot!"  
"Look well Scrooge! Look at these chains which bind me now!"  
"Why Makarley, what chains can bind the dead?"  
"These chains were forged link by link on all my days alive, while I enjoyed excess and vice I worked hard to make them for myself! Are they not miraculous therefore, brother?"  
"I do not understand your meaning Makarley, speak clearly! If you have something to say then let me hear it before my fear overtake me altogether!"  
"Scrooge, my friend, I have been granted these short moments to bring you a message," the spectre grinned lopsidedly in the manner Makarley had in life and rotated slowly. Scrooge had always despised the man's slovenliness, but he had acted as something of a counterbalance to Scrooge's strictness and discipline.  
"Well then get on with it Makarley," snapped Scrooge, "speak and then begone, shade!"  
"Oh, oh! That is no way to talk to a brotherly fellow who has gone out of his way to help you out man, and this has meant severe inconvenience on my part I can tell you."  
  
Scrooge groaned and leant his chin in his hand. It was Makarley all right, there could be no doubt. No one else would haunt a man and then forget why he had bothered to make the effort.  
  
"Makarley!" Snapped Scrooge, "the message!"  
"Alright," said the ghost, "I'm listening."  
"No you blasted phantasm! Your message! For me!"  
"Oh. Yes! Eridaneezer, you are tonight going to receive a spectral visitation!"  
"I know," said Scrooge flatly, "it's happening."  
"No! I mean, yes, obviously, but not me! You will be visited on this night by three ghosts!"  
"Are you sure?" Asked Scrooge sarcastically, "it might have just been one ghost, but he was moving around a lot and you lost count."  
"Three ghosts!" Said Makarley, and already the spectral winds clawing at him were drawing him back, back to the underworld as he began floating through the wall, "three ghosts will come for you, and heed their message well! Let the spirit of the day fill your soul, or else be bound for hell!"  
  
Scrooge sat in darkness, alone again. He clutched the arms of his chair and muttered under his breath softly.  
  
"That didn't happen, that could not have happened. What manner of an empire would we have if things like that could happen?" He lifted his cap and mopped his brow, "the result of an unsettled dinner, is all. That was no more then a brief loss of balance, perhaps brought on by indigestion. You hear that, Makarley!" He shouted it to the heavens, "you're no more then a potato, or a morsel of undigested bread!"  
  
That made him feel better. He made his way to bed and resolved to think about these things no more that night.


	2. Chapter 2

Sleep would not come easily to Scrooge on that Christmas Eve. No thoughts of joy and good merriment kept him awake, nor the excitement that kept the streets outside alive with revellers. Sleep did come in time, when at last he was able to put the image of his partner Makarley out of his mind once and for all. He awoke as light fell across his face, tracing across his room. He thought that dawn had roused him at first but the light was too ruddy for that, an earthy tone that cast the room in shades of clay and burnt umber. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, there was no sound but still he was certain that he was not alone. Looking around his bare room he perceived a translucent shape, the source of the light. The figure of a female with long, tumbling hair who drifted close to his bed and looked on him with a calm expressionless mien.  
  
"Eridaneezer Scrooge," she intoned softly at last, "I am the first ghost who's coming was foretold to you this night."  
"God in heaven preserve me," moaned Scrooge, "is there no end to this lunacy? Begone spirit I beg of you, and leave me in peace! Or else state your business quickly and leave a poor mortal to his rest."  
"No, Scrooge! No rest for you this night, I am but the first of three! I am called the ghost of Christmas Past, and together you and I shall uncover the secrets hidden in times gone by."  
  
She held out a hand to him, and Scrooge rose from his bed knowing that he could not refuse this spectral visitor. He walked to her and she took his hand, she felt cool and solid to the touch even though he could see through her as easily as smoke.  
  
"What is your providence spirit," he breathed, "whence comest you?"  
"The past is my domain, and I have knowledge of all that has gone before on this most holy night," she intoned, "everything that ever was on every Christmas past is mine to observe." Apropos of nothing, she added, "ribbit."  
"Well then, deliver your message to me and let me be done with you, for I am not a man to dwell on the past."  
"Is that so, dear Eridaneezer? Well we shall see. Close your eyes."  
  
Scrooge complied and there was a sudden dislocating sense of motion. When he opened them again he found that he was out in the open on a freezing snowclad morning, with snowflakes as real as he was drifting down in front of him.  
  
"How can this be, spirit? I know that it is the dead of night, and yet after a single breath the sun is risen!"  
"We are in the past, Scrooge. This is Christmas day many years ago. Perhaps you will remember it better soon. Come. Ribbit."  
  
She led the way along a winding lane that Scrooge did feel some growing affinity for. He felt certain that he had come here in times past, a feeling which grew only greater as they came upon a secluded country house down the way. As they approached there came from within the sound of excitement, dancing and merry-making. Scrooge suddenly clapped his hands and gasped as memory came upon him like the tide. "Terezziwig!"  
The ghost slowed and turned to face him, nodding, "you remember?"  
"My old employer! Missus Terezziwig! Every year she would host a grand party for all," he paused for breath, rubbing at his throat, "all of the clerks."  
  
They approached the house, the ghost assuring him that they would remain unseen by those in the past, whose destiny was already writ down. They passed insubstantially through a wall into the great hall where Terezziwig was leading the way in a huge raucous dance, wheeling and stamping about blindly in a haze of laughter and shouts, while taking the arm of each clerk in turn and leading them on a mad jig. People stamped their feet and clapped their hands, someone had a fiddle and someone else was on the piano, and though the music was ill timed and amateurish it more then sufficed to rouse up the spirits of their happiness.  
  
Scrooge caught a glimpse of a young man sat alone, who when approached by Terezziwig stood up with a smile and danced with her, and he gasped.  
  
"That is me! I mean to say, it is I! When I was a young man, oh how we would look forward to these parties! Christmas had not truly begun until Terezziwig had set the date! The love we all bore her, ah! Ah!"  
"Is that so, ribbit?"  
"Of course, can you not see? Look at the faces, can you hear the laughter? Oh let me go and dance one last time with old Terezziwig!"  
"No, Eridaneezer, these days are past and settled, you cannot come back here. Only remember them, and ask yourself if your own employees feel the same way about you?"  
"Why," Scrooge's face fell as he thought on Bob Karkatchit, shivering at a cold desk, "why I'm sure that Karkatchit feels a certain measure of respect and fondness for me as his provider."  
"Provider! Look at Terezziwig there, see how she falls in the lap of a clerk and fetches him a pie? See there, she asks after the wife of another and how well his children are doing? That is respect, Scrooge. That is love and kindness. Tell me, when was the last time you asked poor Bob how his children are?"  
"Don't scold me, spirit! I know I must seem humble and small in stature compared to roaring old Terezziwig here and now, but remember business is business! After the party ends, we must all go back to our work, and fill our days with solemn duty!"  
"Did you think so then, as you do now?"  
"I did indeed! I was always aware of the need for seriousness and discipline."  
"Perhaps that explains her, then."  
  
The ghost raised an arm to point, and Scrooge caught sight of someone he had not seen or thought about in decades. She sat nearby to him, and from his position he could see that she watched him intently but his younger self was paying no attention and just clapped politely to the dancers.  
  
"Belleri," he whispered, "oh, my Belleri, she was there too, wasn't she?"  
"I'm surprised you noticed, for all the attention you paid her."  
"I wanted to be promoted to head clerk in the new year, she knew how important it was to me that I made a good impression on Terezziwig."  
"She knew well how important it was to you that your career advanced, that is perhaps why she felt able to leave you."  
"Ach, take me away spirit, do not show me more of this."  
"Look, Scrooge, there she is now- she approaches a young man to place a hand on his arm and ask him one last time if he will not consider marriage to her and put thoughts of money to one side for a little while."  
"I was too young, I thought I should wait until I was more properly established before considering marriage."  
"And so you told her. See now, she nods in understanding and gets up to leave."  
"I don't think I saw her again until I received news that she was to marry. I doubt they did so well, she married a man of limited means."  
"And have you done so much better, Scrooge? Now you are a man of position and importance, where is the wife and long marriage you promised yourself once you had made your achievements?"  
"I never married, I truly never loved after Belleri left. I had my own life, and she had hers."  
"See now she leaves to go and find her own life. She is at the door now Scrooge, will you look back as she goes?"  
"You know that I did not look back. I resolved myself to seek my promotion no matter what. Oh, spirit! Look at her! The light of the snow outside makes an angel of her, don't let her leave spirit!"  
"You know that she already has left, Eridaneezer. I can show your past to you, but you alone are its' author."  
"Belleri! Wait! Give a foolish young man a second chance to show you his worth!"  
"She knows your worth, and so she departs."  
"Spirit take me back again, let me have those moments a little longer, let me have a little more time I beg of you!"  
  
But the ghost laid a hand on his shoulder and already they were moving, floating upwards through the roofbeams and away through the clouds, back once again to the cold dark room where Scrooge felt icy chilled tears run down his face.  
  
"Why show me that, spirit? Why torture me so?"  
"Because, dear Eridaneezer, the past is your creation but the future you have yet to create. Ribbit."  
"And what is that supposed to mean?"  
"It is not for me to say, perhaps your next visitor will enlighten you further. I must leave you now, Scrooge."  
"Go then! Begone and forgotten, you dream! I will not be made a fool of in this manner and speak on things that are best left dead and buried, begone!"  
  
And, with a last forlorn "Ribbit" the ghost disappeared, leaving Scrooge to lay down his head and try to find sleep again. He muttered and grumbled in his sleep and tried to push down the last vision of Belleri, her slender body outlined in the doorway against a bright background of snow, her face turned to young Eridaneezer who would not meet her gaze, and would let love walk from his life.  
  
-  
  
Once again Scrooge found himself awakened when a light shone throughout his room. This time it was bright, far too bright for dawn, he thought that a raging bonfire must be alight and sat up with a cry. His simple room had been transfigured by blazing ghostly light of vigorous and verdant green. There in the corner sat an enormous figure, a huge female on a throne of holly and mistletoe intertwined with willow-reeds. She turned to him and beckoned with a smile, and he could see that the ghost glowed from within as if with the very essence of life. He stumbled from his bed and approached. The ghost was surrounded by richest, a feast laid out fit for a king. There was figgy pudding and hazelnuts, roast pig and quail, eggs piled high with salt and mustard. He passed by a board of cheeses groaning with the weight an d a pudding which looked to be as big as his head. He saw bottles of porter and stout, beer and wine aplenty. Platters of succulent meat, turkey, beef and game. Bowls of jam and tracklements, mustard-seed dressing and cider vinegar. His mouth truly watered as he came close to the ghost, who nestled in a fine robe of bright green velvet with a mink stole.  
  
"Come closer," her voice boomed through the room even though she tried to speak softly to him, "come closer and know me better, man."  
Scrooge had to lick his lips and swallow hard to contain his ravenous hunger at the feast. "And who might you be, if I may be so bold?"  
Her laughter boomed, "Why, I am the ghost of Christmas Present."  
  
She extended a hand large enough to scoop him up close and plant him on her lap, her skin glowed bright enough that he shielded his eyes, and she passed to him a great golden cup to drink from.  
  
"What is this, spirit? Why, this is the most wonderful concoction I have ever tasted!"  
"Nothing less then the milk of human kindness, Eridaneezer Scrooge. A brew available freely to all men who will only seek it out, yet guarded jealously all too often."  
"And why have you come to me spirit? You seem a jolly sort, not one given to cruelty like the other ghosts I have seen."  
"Cruelty? Never! Christmas is a time when all may sit well with each other in brotherhood if so they choose."  
"Then will we sit together and share this evening?"  
"Not quite."  
  
She put out a hand and touched his chest, and there was a flash of light. Once again Scrooge found himself outside in the snow but this time the night was dark around them and the clock chimed the late hour. He looked around in surprise, and found the ghost close to hand though she had become smaller now and could walk beside him.  
  
"Come Scrooge, let us see what this Christmas Eve has brought to your fellow man."  
"If you insist, Spirit, though I don't see why it makes a difference to me when I should be tucked up asleep in bed."  
"Here now, does this house not look familiar to you?"  
"No, no I shouldn't say so, and it seems a rather run-down property I doubt I would have any dealings here."  
"I am surprised Scrooge, one of your oldest acquaintances lives therein. Let us see."  
  
They moved to the window, and Scrooge caught sight of a bare well-scrubbed scullery with a simple table warmed by a stove. A slender woman was ladling out soup and cabbage, she had fingerless gloves and a mob cap of blue and wore a simple green housecoat to ward off the cold, and she served the simple meal to none other then Bob Karkatchit.  
  
"Here love," she purred, "have a little more, you've had a long enough day running after the children as well as that miserly Scrooge,"  
"Now now Neppie, let us not speak ill of him, he is alone at Christmas after all."  
"Why are you such a kind man, Bob? You would be right enough to be angry at him if you wanted."  
"I'll not give in to such thoughts," said Bob, though he ground his teeth around his cabbage, "I have a family of my own to think of, and if Mister Scrooge will insist on being just-so, then it is to his own detriment."  
  
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him, they embraced for a long moment while Scrooge watched agog. Beside him the spirit, smaller again then before, knelt and looked in the window as well.  
  
"Did you take Tiny Tav to the church on time?"  
"I did my love, and he sang his little heart out for the poor of the town."  
"Oh I am so glad, he is a good little boy."  
"As good as gold and better, you should have seen their faces when he got up to sing for them. The whole church went quiet, and as his tiny voice rose up to the heavens, why I swear even the angels must have paused to listen."  
"You're a good man, Bob."  
"I wish I were better, to you and the children. I can't bear to see you spend Christmas Eve at a dinner so poor. And what's to eat for to-morrow?"  
"You leave me to think on that Bob, you know I can always cook something up. You work too hard for us, let us look after you on this one day."  
"I am sorry my love, I didn't know how to tell you, but I must go to work to-morrow."  
"On Christmas Day! It is unheard of! I will march right up to that Eridaneezer Scrooge and... and... claw his eyes out!"  
"No you shall not! We will not spend our Christmas, such as it is, thinking ill of another. We have all we're given and we must think on that alone."  
  
Scrooge shook his head and turned to the ghost, who was now no bigger then himself, she looked back at him with a knowing smile.  
  
"Spirit, why are they so insistently happy when they have so little? Is Karkatchit really too blind to understand his circumstances?"  
"You mean, that he is surrounded by a loving family, who wish him only the best on Christmas Day? How could any man be unaware of such riches, he is right to give thanks."  
"You know exactly what I mean!"  
"And you know nothing of what I mean. Look closer, Scrooge. These are poor people, but are they miserable ones? Does Bob truly lack what is most important? Look at the love in the eyes of his wife, as he speaks about his precious child," she paused and added meaningfully, "his precious sick child, could she ask for anything more in that moment?"  
Scrooge grunted, "she could ask for more to eat, her table is sorely wanting and her home is little more then a shambles."  
"And to think, we have perfectly good workhouses to provide shelter and gainful activity for these people, do we not? To think, a perfectly good child wasting time in church instead of profitable employment."  
Scrooge snapped her a look sharply, she just stared coolly back at him. He could not answer that.  
  
They rose again into the heavens, but this time the spirit directed them to another house, far better appointed then the last and familiar to him. She was a more slender form now, her glow less bright by far. She pointed wordlessly and Scrooge attended the window.  
  
"I know this house!" He called out, "it is that of my nephew, Fredquius! What is that good-for-nothing up to then, I expect you want me to see."  
"Aye Scrooge, look closely. Your nephew, who invited you for a meal earlier this day, as indeed he does every Christmas does he not?"  
"He does indeed, as though I would have the time for such nonsense."  
"Look closer Scrooge, what do you see there?"  
"I see Fredquius of course, and I suppose those must be his friends around him. Strange, I always found him to be a cringing sort not given to socialising."  
"Then you don't know him well at all do you? Perhaps around his imposing and patrician uncle he is humble, but to his friends Fredquius is known as a strong and gregarious man, a generous provider and someone who is to be relied upon."  
"I see them, I see them, they are having a meal. Ha, my nephew can at least put on a better feast then can poor Karkatchit!"  
"And just as you are responsible for Bob Karkatchit, see how young Fredquius takes his family and friends in arm and makes it his duty to show them a fine Christmas Eve. None shall go hungry while Fredquius has an ounce of strength in him."  
"Then he is a bigger fool then I thought!"  
"Don't tell that to me, Eridaneezer, I am only a ghost. Why not speak your opinion to your friends? Will you be seeing any, this Christmas?"  
Scrooge changed the subject, pointing out an empty spot at the table. "What happens there? They are all talking now about the empty place."  
"Come, we shall listen."  
  
Fredquius was indeed being asked by his friends why he had laid a bare place at the table for dinner, and he laughed a little to hide some embarrassment, which only made them chuckle.  
"It is a place for my uncle," he explained.  
"Your uncle? You mean old Scrooge?"  
"The same."  
"Well done old boy, it's good to have a reminder that he is gladly not here!"  
"Oh no, you don't understand," Fredquius replied, "I set a place for him in good faith, and every year I beg him to come join our revels for Christmas and every year he refuses, but still I will make a place for him."  
"But why? After all this time why, when he is clearly not to be changed?"  
"I hold out hope for the man, I respect him as my elder and uncle, and I bear him only love and goodwill, I hope that he will one day see it."  
"Oh Fredquius!"  
A woman had entered and she patted him on the shoulder, smiling. He blushed a little and smiled back at her, she kissed him on the forehead. "You're a silly old romantic really Fred, and I think I love you all the more for it."  
"Come, sit, enough trying to embarrass me, we have a feast to conquer! Who has the potatoes-"  
  
Scrooge groaned and turned away. The spirit followed patiently as they left the house.  
  
"Is something the matter, Scrooge?"  
"You know very well. If you wished to show me that my nephew is better loved then I, congratulations. I'll not deny that he has an appeal I lack, which keeps his house fuller then mine."  
"Do not think of his good qualities as deficiencies in yourself, Eridaneezer. Your nephew has struggled to become an upright and good man bereft of the guidance he always sought from you. In truth, you might have been more like a father to him if you had wanted, and a welcome guest at this meal."  
"What do you want from me, spirit?"  
"Have I asked anything of you? I only show you what is, it is for you to see what you wish to see."  
  
The ghost was looking positively frail now, her back was bent and her light near extinguished, she was grey and small he now realised and he ran to her side. She thankfully accepted his help standing straighter, touching him on the arm as they departed for his room again.  
  
"Spirit," he asked, "where is your glow, your vigour? Why do you look so withered now?"  
"The present must come and go quickly, ever born from the future and ever consigned to the past. My time with you is short, Eridaneezer Scrooge, and it has now come to an end."  
"But do not leave spirit, I had enjoyed your company so well!"  
"Think on that then, Scrooge, and wonder how you spend your every fleeting moment. Because remember, a moment will last only so long and it is then gone forever. Yours is the power to choose your moments well, or not. To fight against want and hunger, to seek out life and laughter, or else not. My moment has come and gone Scrooge, and so I leave."  
  
She stood up straighter with some difficulty, ageing visibly before his eyes, and as the light dimmed he pulled his sheets close to him and shivered. So many visions he had seen, and yet if Makarley was to be believed there was still another ghost yet to arrive. He shivered warily and settled down to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Scrooge shivered in his bed and sleep would not come. Something dreadful awaited him and he could not discount these visions any longer, the supernatural events of the evening had left him shivering and weak. When the room was suffused with a dim blue glow he was ready, and sat up in bed.  
  
"Show yourself ghost! I know I am to be visited again this night, show yourself!"  
  
In the middle of the room there stood a black shape, a figure cloaked head to toe in black, invisible. Scrooge moved to the edge of his bed, shivering. A slight inclination of the creature's head indicated that it was watching him intently, and he thought he could discern within the inky blackness of the shroudlike hood the gleam of a single, baleful eye.  
  
"I have seen, this night, the ghosts of Christmases past and present," breathed Scrooge, "can I take it then that you are the shade of things yet to come?"  
The ghost nodded slowly, and raised a hand, no flesh and blood limb but the entire arm a mechanical contrivance of metal and gears, and beckoned to him.  
"I think spirit, it is you who I fear most of all," said Scrooge as he got down and walked to the ghost, "show me then what visions you bring."  
  
They travelled in an instant, and Scrooge found himself once again blinking in daylight, he was in a church-yard filled with marker stones, and the bell tolled mournfully but there was no-one about. He saw people passing by in the street and walked to the railings of the yard in a daze, perplexed and filled with dread. He heard snippets of conversation from the passers by, who noted the tolling of the church bell. They spoke of a man whose funeral was being held to-day, so loathed and unloved that there were no mourners for his service. The church was forlorn and empty and held only a dead body with none to grieve upon it. Scrooge turned to the ghost, his face was paper-white.  
  
"Ghost! Tell me who lies in this church today! Tell me!"  
  
The ghost did not reply, only raising its' mechanical arm again to indicate the way they must go. Scrooge found himself propelled rapidly along the cobblestone streets until he found himself at his own house, where the ghost drew him effortlessly through the walls and to the cellar, where goods and property were being divided up by a gaggle of maids.  
  
"'Ere, look at this! Real silver!" One of them held up a spoon to the light, examining it, "who'dve thought it, the old goose splashed out on real silver!"  
"A gift from my nephew," snapped Scrooge impotently, "I kept that silver cutlery service for the best occasions." But they couldn't hear him.  
"Hoy, Ethel! Another of them stumped into the room carrying armfuls of cloth, "'ave a look in the top rooms, there's some love-r-ly curtains, and shame to see 'em go to waste!"  
Scrooge turned to the ever-present ghost and retorted angrily, "is this what you brought me to see? That there is no respect for the dead in times to come!"  
  
The ghost did not answer him, but the women continued bundling up his goods and chattered to each other. There was no remorse in what they did, the dead man did not inspire any sense of respect or affection in them. Scrooge went from room to room but it was all the same, thieves and vagabonds had descended on his fine home as soon as breath left his body, and were helping themselves to his worldly goods. The house had not heard such laughter in all the years Scrooge had lived there.  
  
"You have not said that it is I who am to be buried to-day," said Scrooge softly, "I might well have left this home for another, it might well be some other poor soul being picked over by these vultures."  
In response he felt metal fingers gently brush over his shoulder, and squeeze.  
"Oh spirit, show me that there is someone who things well upon the dead, show me there is someone who feels something for the poor departed of this place. Can you do that, spirit?"  
  
There was a sense of motion again, this ghost did not guide so much as drag Scrooge to where they were going in the blink of an eye. They were in a kitchen where a man walked in and stamped the snow from his boots, calling to his wife.  
  
"Have you heard, have you heard?" He asked her as she took his coat, "the old goat has finally passed on, and with him our debts!"  
"Oh that is wonderful!" she exclaimed with a squeal, throwing her arms around him, "oh but I don't want to speak ill of the dead, really I don't, but how else should I feel? We've toiled under his yoke all these years, and now we're free!"  
"Let's not think on him any more," said the man, "open a bottle of wine my love, today is a celebration for us and we'll have a fine Christmas!"  
"Spirit!" Moaned Scrooge, "is this the best you can do? Are the only feelings on the passing of a poor mortal soul ones of joy?" He turned on the shade and demanded, "does no-one grieve?"  
The ghost just shook its head slowly, invisible within the cloaked hood.  
"Take me away ghost, I will see no more of this."  
  
They flew from there to the Karkatchit household again, which Scrooge approached almost eagerly. "Bob! Bob Karkatchit, show me a little more of the Christmas cheer you held before," and he near ran through the wall, with the ghost following sombrely behind.  
  
All was quiet in the house, where Bob sat at table with his head in his hands. His wife came to him and put a hand on his back and kissed his head, he could only bring himself to touch her arm.  
"Bob," she said softly, "it wasn't your fault, his time had come."  
"No Neppie, too soon. Far too soon."  
Scrooge tried to see, craning his neck, "What has happened here, ghost?"  
"Please," she said, stroking Karkatchit's back, "we have to see the undertaker, there will need to be a coffin."  
"Oh Neppie don't ask me that, don't let me think on my little boy in the ground," Karkatchit's shoulders shook and he plunged his face into his hands, "not in the ground!"  
  
Scrooge cried out and turned to flee, but was confronted with the awful blackness of the ghost who gripped his arm tightly in its' metal hand.  
  
"No! It's not true!" Scrooge yelled into the blackness, "it isn't!"  
"I should have sent him to the workhouse," whispered Karkatchit, "he'd have been warm at least."  
"You hush now Bob Karkatchit," said his wife, weeping openly, "you don't mention anything that wicked Scrooge said in this house again, you were the best father a boy could have wanted and that's the truth of it, Tiny Tav loved you more then anything in the world, a life as short as his couldn't have been more filled up with love!"  
"Take me away," screamed Scrooge, "take me away ghost, I swear I'll do anything you want, ask anything of me but take me away!"  
  
And then they were away, back in the churchyard again, though time had passed and the funeral was long gone. They stood together on a grey morning in light drizzle near a grave marker, and the ghost raised its' awful claw to point it out. Scrooge turned, blinking through the tears.  
"What is it?" He moved closer, "who lays here?"  
The ghost was behind him, urging him on, forcing him to see.  
"I won't look, I won't! Why do you torture me so?"  
The ghost shoved him roughly in the back and Scrooge fell to his knees, looking up to see there carved into the stone in indelible writing, his own name. It was his own grave that he knelt upon, where his cold corpse festered in the earth unremarked and ungrieved for, unwanted and his memory unkept. Scrooge wept and choked on his tears, no scrap of his upright cantankerous self left.  
"Tell me only this, spirit. These visions you show me, are they truly a foresight of things to come? Or is the future yet unwritten?" He rose up on his knees and looked up into the rain, "can I change yet, spirit? Is there still time for me to change all this?"  
The ghost had no answer for him, placing the metal hand on his shoulder one last time as with a clap of thunder Scrooge found himself once again in his own bed, as the clock tower outside began to toll the midnight bells.  
  
-  
  
Christmas morning came, and the children screamed and laughed with each other, running and chasing through the streets with a giddy joy. The early morning found Scrooge awake in bed, reaching for his eye-glasses blearily and asking himself whether it had all been a dream. He felt that the night had stretched on for days, so varied had been his adventures. He ran to the window and threw it open. Spying a boy on the street below he called out sharply.  
  
"Hoy! You there, boy!"  
"Me sir?"  
"You indeed! Tell me boy, what day is this?"  
The boy looked up at him as though he were truly mad. "To-day sir?"  
"Quickly boy! Just tell me the day!"  
"Why, it is Christmas day to-day sir!"  
"Christmas Day! Oh I'm not too late, it's Christmas Day today! You hear me boy, Christmas Day! The spirits did it all in one evening, why of course! They can do as they please, they are ghosts after all!"  
"Sir?"  
"You boy, wait right there a moment!"  
  
Scrooge ducked back into his room and returned in an instant, tossing down a coin to the waiting boy who snatched it up incredulously, "Listen well boy! There is a butchers shop not three streets away, you know the one?"  
"I do sir!"  
"Go there now boy, go and tell them I want the biggest fattest turkey they have and no matter the cost! Tell them to have it brought here and I don't care if you have to wake the lazy laggards from their sleep to do it! And if you do this for me boy, there's a half- I mean a whole crown in it for you!"  
"Y-yes sir!" The boy couldn't believe his luck, but he believed in madmen and Christmas so he turned on his heel and ran like never before.  
  
Scrooge turned from his window and rubbed his hands gleefully, "So much to do!" He muttered, "so much to do and little time- I'm no ghost who can just fly about willy-nilly after all!" He brought himself up short and caught his reflection in a dress mirror. He drew himself up tall and glared at his own reflection. "You're not a ghost, Eridaneezer Scrooge, not quite yet! There's still time!"  
  
Children scattered in fear as a black shape roared down the street, Scrooge's billowing cape had never flapped so smartly in the wind nor had his boots ever kicked up such a torrent of snow before. He skidded around corners and slipped down embankments, huffing and puffing and clinging to his top hat for dear life. He took a cab across town and fair ran down the short garden path to the Karkatchit residence.  
  
Bob was making ready for work when the door rattled and shook in its' frame from the pounding Scrooge gave it. In incredulous shock he opened the door to find Scrooge out of breath and bent double, gasping for air.  
  
"Mister Scrooge sir! But, how did you know where I live? I know I might be a minute or so late but I swear I'll make it up to you Mister Scrooge, I hope that-"  
"Silence!" Roared Scrooge, drawing himself up to his full height and planting his hands on Karkatchit's shoulders, he strode into the house propelling the poor clerk before him to a chair and stood like an angel of vengeance before the fireplace. Bob's wife screamed when she saw who it was, and a couple of errant children who had come to investigate the noise clustered around her aprons.  
  
"Well upon my mortal soul," exclaimed Scrooge, "it's Neppie isn't it?"  
"Indeed it is sir," answered Bob, "but how did you know-"  
"I said silence!" Barked Scrooge. He coughed and patted his chest as though to make a pronouncement. "I have told you, have I not, that business shall commence as ever at nine o'clock this morning?"  
"Nine o'clock sir, as you said."  
"And I have said, have I not, that there will be no allowance made for this being Christmas Day?"  
"You have indeed sir, you said so yourself."  
"Well to all of that, I now say," he took in a deep breath. "Humbug!"  
"Humbug, sir?"  
"Humbug indeed Bob! On this Christmas Day you shall remain here where you belong, with your family and your fine turkey dinner!"  
"There won't be no turkey dinner," retorted Neppie angrily, "and if this is your idea of a joke sir-"  
"No joke my dear lady, my dear sweet angel I wouldn't, aha, wouldn't dream! Driver!"  
  
At his command the cab driver entered, bearing the biggest turkey the family had ever seen, all dressed and prepared in a basket. He nodded to Scrooge as he laid it on the table, and accepted a very generous tip for his trouble. The children squealed and danced about the table, and Neppie just looked on in shock. "Well," she said, "I had better get the stove going!"  
"Rightly so my dear, rightly so!" Crowed Scrooge, "ah Bob, you have such a wonderful family, you should have introduced me sooner!"  
"But sir, you told me-"  
"I said a lot of things, and most of them were the completest and most bilious rot! There's someone missing though," he looked around at the children one by one, "who's not here?"  
"You mean, well there's Tiny Tav, but he's a-bed at the moment sir, I think he took a bit of a chill."  
Scrooge felt his throat constrict and his heart leap in his chest, "A chill you say?"  
"Aye sir, he's always had a bit of a weak chest, and what with winter and all," Bob mumbled, but it was too late- Scrooge was already charging up the stairs like a brace of Hungarian Hussars into battle.  
"Where? Show me? Where is he?" Scrooge bust into the room shared by all the children and there in the corner nearest a scuttle with a single glowing ember of a coal lay a small figure swaddled in blankets on a bed.  
  
Scrooge sat down on the edge of the bed and place a hand on Tav's chest, the boy was breathing so shallowly he could barely feel it, and even under the blankets he was cold. Scrooge squared his shoulders and got up as Bob arrived in the room.  
  
"Bob, I must apologise to you that things have reached such a parlous state between us, I have known you longer then, I think, anyone and I have never been the friend to you that I should have."  
"Sir, what do you mean by this? If I may ask, how can it be that yesterday you were- well, you- and today this?"  
"Christmas!" Retorted Scrooge, Christmas is the answer, and there is so much to do! Now Bob, I want you to swaddle up young Tav here and bring him downstairs where we shall raise up a fire to drive out the wickedest chill, you and I shall go down to the colliers directly for fuel and then on to my doctor, a man who will attend him or else face a thrashing from me like he has never imagined!"  
"Sir! I couldn't ask it of you!"  
"Indeed not, which is why you needn't, I insist! Now quickly, while I go to fetch a cab- if we're in luck the driver may not be away yet."  
  
Scrooge darted down the stairs while Bob complied, helping the sleeping Tiny Tav to sit and fetching the crutches with which he moved around in his fashion. Scrooge took Bob to the colliers for a massive sack of coal and they passed by the Kensington residence of his doctor, who was ill at ease when Scrooge threatened to batter down his door and insisted on checking the man over for a fever before agreeing to come back with him to see to Tiny Tav.  
  
So it was that Christmas Day, when time came for dinner they all sat together, tiny Tav was rosy cheeked and warm as anything next to the blazing fire, the doctor had given him a strong medicine and more to take over the coming weeks, with strict instructions to call on him if anything happened and all paid for entirely by Scrooge.  
  
"Bob, it occurs to me that I shall not be able to maintain my business in the manner I have been forever, " Announced Scrooge over wine as the children tucked into their meal, "and that is why I have decided to take on a partner to deal with the business alongside me, in readiness for my retirement."  
"I see sir, and whom did you have in mind?"  
"Who else? Bob, you know the books as well as I do if not better and who else could it be? We will sit down and talk it through properly after Boxing Day."  
"In faith, I do not know what to say! It is like some kind of a dream!"  
"No Bob," said Eridaneezer gravely, "it's like no kind of a dream nor will it be!" The family turned to look at him, shocked by his sudden gravity until he winked, "it will be better!"  
  
Scrooge ate a little and drank with them, but got up to leave half way through the meal. He explained that he had so much to do and so little time, there was barely enough left of the day for all of the Christmas spirit that now filled his heart to find truest expression. As he darted off into the afternoon with a merry cackle Bob sat down heavily and mopped his brow.  
  
"Am I seeing things? We all just heard and saw all that didn't we?"  
"We did indeed my love," answered Neppie, "so eat up, and rest well because it's long over-due time for your fortunes to come in."  
"Yes," smiled Bob, "you're right love. And what about you Tiny Tav, how are you doing over there? What do you have to say about it all?"  
From beside the fireplace under a mound of blankets and even Scrooge's waistcoat which he had insisted on wrapping round the lad, Tiny Tav raised his head and smiled.  
"I'm fine, da," he squeaked, "and God bless us, every one."  
  
And Scrooge went to the house of his nephew to make peace, and was welcomed to take the place that Fredquius had always insisted on setting for him. He was shown such love and kindness that he thought he would burst, and was free about giving all of that in return to his nephew. Never again would they be strangers, he swore, and never again would there be bitterness at Chirstmastime.  
  
Eridaneezer Scrooge was as good as his word and better, and to Tiny Tav he became like a second father, doting on the boy and seeing to it that he would never go hungry again. His business flourished with the energy and drive of Bob Karkatchit, and from that day forth he kept the spirit of the season in his heart not just on Christmas Day but on every day thereafter. The children would shriek and run whenever he came past on Christmas, because there was always certain to be a snowball fight whenever Scrooge was about. The parson and the beadle came to know him well as he gave generously to all the good causes of the borough, and became a patron of the arts and a provider to all. As much as he gave, Scrooge received tenfold in return and felt a bounteous wealth in his heart like never he had thought possible. The years were good to him then, and Scrooge could live his life safe in the knowledge that no old man had ever repaired his ways more truly or brought about so good a change in himself.  
  
So comes an end to the tale, and with it a warning- the chains that bind us we forge ourselves, and we are the writers of our own fate. No man ever knew that better then Eridaneezer Scrooge.


End file.
